burned my wok today

it was all going well but today I used too high heat resulted in bumpy carbon build up after cooking, I scrubed with a scrotch brite and found some dull areas..I wipe and see dark powder.. it will probably go away but I know the next few meals will have charcoal powder in the next few dishes I make..

Going to heat it up and wipe with some lard again hopefully get the shiny look back..

does this happen to anyone? I do use an outdoor turkey fryer burner so it can burn off the seasoning if not careful.

I also was wondering if carbon steel will be slicker and easier to work with?

I did this recently with a small cast iron skillet. I had put it on a burner to dry as I always do but then forgot about. About 45 minutes later I went into the kitchen to find a red-hot skillet full of dark ash. I was quite upset since this had been my grandmother's skillet and was the most perfectly seasoned cast iron pan I've ever seen. I gave it a good scrubbing with Brillo which got rid of nearly all the ash and have begun reseasoning it again. Whenever I'm going to be in the kitchen doing something else, I put the pan on the burner, get it really hot, rub some Crisco on it with a paper towel, let it smoke for a minute or two, turn off the heat, and wipe the pan clean. It's still somewhat gray and dull, but it's getting better.

My wok is carbon steel. I've used it rather steadily for about two years now and although it's quite well seasoned, I doubt it's ever going to be as slick as my cast iron skillets. But then, my skillets have at least a good 20 or 30 years on the wok.

I did that last night--left my cleaned Lodge grill pan on a medium flame, where I'd set it to dry, and went to answer the phone or deal with some toddler crisis or something, and came back about a half hour later to a really hot pan. There had been some long baked on grease between the ribs that was reduced to a fine black powder. I let it cool for about ten minutes, picked it up with a potholder and carefully shook out the ash. Wiped it carefully with a dry paper towel, and then wiped it down inside and out with rendered beef fat on a paper towel. It was still hot enough to smoke the oil, and now it looks better than it ever has since I found it abandoned by the previous tenant in our new apartment about a year ago (I called her to make sure she really didn't want it anymore, and she confirmed that she had intentionally left it behind). Now I know how to get rid of built-up gunk on a cast iron skillet.